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Uganda: Lakwena, Woman Rebel Is Dead

Lakwena led the Holy Spirit Movement which gave Yoweri Museveniâ€™s government a hard time from late 1987 to mid-1988 as her forces marched from Gulu district about 300 miles from Kampala to Jinja which is only 50 miles to Kampala where she was finally defeated

Alice Lakwena, the woman who led a Uganda rebel army that even her male compatriots admired has died in a refugee camp in Western Kenya. The cause is unknown but she had been ill—she was 50.

Before she died she had plans of returning to live in Uganda. The government of Uganda has said that it would assist her relatives to transport her body to Uganda for a decent burial at her ancestral home in Gulu district.

“We are a government for all Ugandans,” said third deputy prime minister and minister for information, Kirunda Kivejinja. “Although Lakwena led to deaths of thousands of Ugandans we will assist her relatives to transport the body from Kenya to Gulu. We want her relatives to come to us and we collectively plan how we can bring back the body.''

Lakwena led the Holy Spirit Movement which gave Yoweri Museveni’s government a hard time from late 1987 to mid-1988 as her forces marched from Gulu district about 300 miles from Kampala to Jinja which is only 50 miles to Kampala where she was finally defeated—she fled to Kenya.

In the annals of modern African uprisings, Lakwena’s was unique in that it was commanded by a female.

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